Time to make some changes

The 2014 season will mark the 10th anniversary of the Pats' last championship season, and the window is beginning to close on the Tom Brady-Bill Belichick era.

TIM WEISBERG

With another season in the rear view mirror, the New England Patriots are further and further away from their last Super Bowl championship. The 2014 season will mark the 10th anniversary of the Pats' last championship season, and the window is beginning to close on the Tom Brady-Bill Belichick era.

The Patriots made it to the AFC Championship Game for the third consecutive season, but for the second straight time, they failed to advance to the Super Bowl. There's a figurative hump that they just can't seem to get over, and while this season the Pats should be considered overachievers, they'd much rather enter next season as legitimate contenders.

"We have to turn the page and move on," head coach Bill Belichick said on Monday. "We're going to have an opportunity, as we always do, to sit back, go through everything, take a look at the big picture, take a look at each individual situation — players, coaches, schemes, adjustments, training, you name it — and do anything we can to improve our football team going forward."

Here are five questions facing the New England Patriots, if they hope to make it to the Super Bowl next season:

There's no question that, if the Patriots had their full roster available for Sunday's AFC title game, it likely would have played out a lot different. Rob Gronkowski only played seven games, and the Pats also suffered big season-ending losses like Vince Wilfork, Jerod Mayo, Tommy Kelly, Sebastian Vollmer and Brandon Spikes. Shane Vereen missed half of the regular season. "Next Man Up" made for a catchy slogan, but in the end, it failed them.

Amidst all the injuries and unrealized expectations on the offensive side of the ball, the Patriots were still the highest-scoring team in the NFL. However, that stat doesn't account for how often they failed to come out of the gate putting up points, and how often they fell behind and had to crawl out of a hole.

But even more disturbing has been how they've fared when it mattered most. Quite simply, the offense has sputtered out on the biggest stage — the Patriots have averaged just 16.2 points in the final game of the past five seasons. That includes two AFC Championship Games and a Super Bowl, games in which 16 points are rarely enough.

Right now, the Pats are a team without an offensive identity. We kept waiting for one to emerge all season, but mainly due to injuries, it never really came together. Instead, it was just a matter of riding the hot hand (Julian Edelman, Vereen, LeGarrette Blount) and hoping that, in the end, Tom Brady could rise above all.

Are they going to draft a tight end, or sign one in free agency, and team him with Gronk like the did with Aaron Hernandez and run mainly out of a two tight end set? Or will they find that receiver that can stretch the field like they had with Randy Moss? Perhaps, if the tailbacks can have continued success, the Pats will be a run-first team, but they're still going to need to improve Brady's arsenal. There's a lot of talk the past couple of days about how much better Peyton Manning is than Brady right now, but it's hard to judge that when Manning is throwing to elite-level talent and Brady is throwing to a possibly washed-up slot receiver, an undersized seventh-round draft pick and a pair of rookies.

Speaking of the receiving corps, the Patriots have to decide going forward whether to focus on Edelman or Danny Amendola. New England would suffer a $6.8 million cap hit if they cut Amendola, so he's going to be here next year one way or another (barring a trade during the draft, perhaps). That means Edelman, who became a 1,000-yard receiver this past season, is likely going to get offered a big payday elsewhere. The Patriots can't commit big money to two guys who essentially should play the same role in the offense, and should instead set their sights on someone like Anquan Boldin, who can stretch the field and may be looking to play for a contender elsewhere if the 49ers don't re-sign him.

A year ago, the Patriots and cornerback Aqib Talib signed a mutually beneficial deal, for one year and $5 million. It gave Talib another year to show that he's an elite-level corner and to distance himself from his reputation in Tampa Bay, and it allowed the Pats to get a full-season look at him with low risk. He had some injury issues of his own this season, but had a strong season and proved that he could be a difference-maker in the secondary — just look at how the Broncos dominated with Talib out after the (illegal) hit by Wes Welker.

But that's a possible concern — for the second straight season, the Patriots lost the AFC Championship Game with Talib watching from the sidelines. If Talib considers himself an elite corner and wants elite money, his injury history might cost him.

There are other holes to fill on the defense as well. With Spikes likely gone, the Patriots will look for veteran Don'ta Hightower or Jamie Collins to step up to a larger role at linebacker. Collins came on strong in the latter stages of his rookie campaign, showing an ability to handle both run-stuffing duties and dropping into coverage. Hightower may have the experience edge, but he hasn't lived up to his first-round status and Collins just may surpass him in 2014.

A healthy Wilfork and Mayo will also stabilize the defense, which saw promising performances from young players like Sealver Siliga, Chris Jones, Joe Vellano, Logan Ryan and the continued growth of Alfonzo Dennard.

Back in 2007, the Patriots decided to stop doing so much with so little, went out and got the talent they needed to dominate the NFL and return to the Super Bowl. This year, they'll have to do the same.

As previously mentioned, the window is closing. Ten years without a championship might not seem like a long time to most NFL teams — heck, even Patriots fans wouldn't have minded such a drought if they hadn't been spoiled by three titles in four years — but it's starting to feel like desperate times in Foxboro. Maybe the Patriot Way is the old way, and the old way doesn't work anymore. Instead of building through the draft, maybe it's time to make a splash — provided the Pats can be creative enough with the salary cap to do so.

If not, there's always the hope and promise that comes with each selection in April. The Pats have one pick in each of the first four rounds, plus two in the sixth and another in the seventh. Surely, Belichick will get even more creative during the draft, and there will be a promising young crop of Patriots taking the field come training camp. Eventually, some of them might even become the next generation of championship-caliber players.

But can the Pats afford to wait that long?

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